College's plans for Main St. space bring excitement, concern

Author: Tamara Hilmes

Over the summer, talk began about the College possibly leasing the space at 51 Main Street, the former home of Eat Good Food, a restaurant that went out of business last spring. In late December, Dean of College Tim Spears that Middlebury College would be opening a "chocolate bar" in the space, which he hopes to have up and running by February of this year.

A "chocolate bar," Spears explained, resembles a bar or a coffee house and also operates in a similar fashion. This café/lounge-type establishment would serve chocolate on a piecemeal basis, or in other words, in individual servings rather than in boxes. The idea for a "chocolate bar," which Spears devised after a series of meetings with students and townspeople over the course of the summer and fall, follows a growing national trend.

"Chocolate is really becoming very trendy and sexy," said Spears. "It is really becoming a groovy international product. For instance, I heard on NPR that in South America they are replanting the Amazon region with cacao plants in order to help with ozone problems. Also, the New Yorker recently wrote about the 'mystical' qualities of chocolate. There has also been a lot of talk about dark chocolate and its health benefits. Also, who doesn't like chocolate?"

Spears thought a chocolate bar would be appropriate after students and townspeople expressed a desire to see a business similar to Calvi's, an old-fashioned soda fountain that used to be located downtown, return to Main Street.

"I was compelled by the idea of Calvi's, as there isn't an ice cream place in town," Spears said. "Ice cream was a lot more complicated, though, and involved a lot more overhead. In the end, the chocolate bar provided an easier way of doing the sweet thing. And a chocolate bar has sort of a hip, urban feel."

The final decision to convert the Main Street space into a chocolate bar was made partially in an attempt to find a business to occupy the space during the day, when the space was not being used as a regular bar. As Spears explained, the plan is to have the chocolate bar operating during the day, and then to have it transform into a bar and lounge at night and on weekends.

"Apart from the wonders of chocolate," said Spears, "we needed the space to be flexible in order to change over from a chocolate bar to a real bar. Since we couldn't have the prime downtown space just sitting there vacant during the day, we needed to find some sort of retail activity to fill it during midday."

Along with serving chocolate, during the day the venue will also serve beverages such as coffee and tea, and it will also serve as a retailer for books by faculty member or even possibly CDs of student a capella groups, as well as a social space for students and locals alike to gather. Spears envisions the space as "a great big living room that people will be drawn to day or night." By night, the space will operate as a regular bar, serving "a variety of beer and wine" along with non-alcoholic beverages for its patrons who are not yet of age.

The chocolate bar and nighttime venue will be run by a governing board or program committee, comprised of students and staff, which will determine what the space will look like, what products it will sell and what events will take place in the space. There is also the possibility of student employment positions at the chocolate bar, although additional non-student staff will need to be hired for the actual management of it. Staffing models are already being considered by Director of Dining Services Matthew Biette and Assistant Treasurer of the College Tim Corbin, according to Spears.

One of the most important aspects of this new business venture, according to Spears, is that it will provide a new social space that is different from anything found on campus, as well as a space for "town-gown" events - those that bring the community and the College together in one space. Faculty members could possibly give talks, local artists could display their art in the space and student organizations involved with local teens could meet, all in this single space, according to Spears.

"People in the community are excited to have the opportunity to work closely with Middlebury students," Spears said. "Sometimes people from town have an interest in what's going on at the College, but are reluctant to go up on campus. This way we can bring a little bit of the College to the town, as well as bring more students downtown. It is a good thing for everybody, much like the sharing of creative energy involved in the Town Hall Theater partnership."

"I'm psyched that something is going in," said Rachel Teachout, an employee at Belladonna, the business located directed below the space at 51 Main. "It's a good idea, and anything up there is better than an empty space."

Teachout did express some concern, however, that the College's plan was yet unclear. "It is still very undefined to a lot of people," she said. "I'm interested to see how they are going to narrow it down."

Other members of the community also expressed some concern as to the College's decision to open a chocolate bar on Main St. John Melanson, owner of Carol's Hungry Mind Café, said he was disappointed when he heard the news.

"Honestly, at first I thought, 'they're opening another coffee house,'" he said. "Some people think that it will be an extension of the campus and that students will still want to get away from that, but it still provides a space for social meetings. Now there will be two options where I used to hold an exclusive position in town. We were one of the only places to linger, and now there will be another place to do the same thing."

"I'm trying to be optimistic," Melanson continued. "The hardest part is the coffee and the tea. If they had stuck with nightlife it would have been fine, because we are not open at night except on weekends."

Other local business owners have also expressed concern in regards to the College's chocolate bar. According to Matt White, an employee at Middlebury Market and Sama's Café, one of the owners of Two Brothers Tavern entered the market "pretty ticked off" after hearing that the bar would be serving alcohol to students. Holmes Jacobs, one of the owners of Two Brothers, was unavailable for comment when the paper went to press.

"I can't speak for the managers," said White, "but I'm sure that Sama and Marie will be fine with it. I'm totally cool with it. From my own personal perspective, if they have live music that would awesome. "

Spears stressed that the College has no interest in stepping on the toes of local business.

"Competition is the nature of business," he said."It comes with the territory, and some people in town think, the more business the better. But we are not interested in competing head-to-head with places like Carol's." Spears went on to say that the College has had several meetings with Melanson to try to convey that they understand his precarious economic situation and to offer ways to help. "We are certainly not trying to duplicate what Carol's does," he said.

"My biggest fear is that it will be a coffee and tea venue," said Melanson. "Of course, they say, 'let's let the market decide,' but in reality they have no bottom line in terms of resources. The College is the biggest thing in this town, but without it the town wouldn't be as big as it is. Without the College, I wouldn't have as many customers as I do. And I like the idea of the workshops bringing in more people, although if they offer tea and coffee right after, then that presents another problem."

Spears said he hopes to see the chocolate bar up and running by February of this year, although he did concede that a lot of work has yet to be done before that will be possible.

"This is very exciting," Spears said, "but we can't do it overnight, and there are going to be adjustments along the w
ay. I'm not predicting an overnight sensation."

Before the chocolate bar can be up and running, Spears pointed out, it needs a name. For those interested in offering possible names for the venue, Spears announced in a recent entry on his blog that the committee would be holding a contest to choose a name for the business. The winner of the contest will receive - what else - chocolate.